A contemporary classic that has sold more than two million copies and was a selection of Oprahs original Book Club Midwives is a compulsively readable novel that explores questions of human responsibility that are as fundamental to our society now as they were when the book was first published twenty years ago. On an icy winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont a seasoned midwife named Sibyl Danforth takes desperate measures to save a babys life. She performs an emergency cesarean section on a mother she believes has died of stroke. But what ifas Sibyls assistant later chargesthe patient wasnt already dead The ensuing trial bears the earmarks of a witch hunt forcing Sibyl to face the antagonism of the law the hostility of traditional doctors and the accusations of her own conscience. Exploring the complex and emotional decisions surrounding childbirth Midwives engages moves and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do. show more